Annexation of the Sudetenland

The Annexation of the Sudetenland occurred from 1-10 October 1938 in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement between the Allied Powers and Nazi Germany. German dictator Adolf Hitler demanded autonomy for the ethnic Germans of the Sudetenland region on the western fringes of Czechoslovakia, and he threatened to use force if the Czechoslovaks did not acquiesce. He was forced to back down when Czechoslovakia began a general mobilization and prepared to fight back, but British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain decided to appease Hitler with the Sudetenland in exchange for the promise that Germany would end its territorial expansion. The Sudeten Germans celebrated the occupation, and the Germans were able to seize control of the strong Czech frontier fortifications in the region, as well as important banks and other major parts of the Czechoslovak infrastructure. In March 1939, Germany would occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia.